Next Generation Innovation: Supercharge Your Business through Strategic Government Partnerships

By Kelly Carnes

The United States has a long history as a leader of global innovation and of funding pioneering technologies that prove to be of benefit to the nation. The present moment is no exception. In fact, the next decade is likely to see increased involvement from the Federal government bringing to market the most innovative technologies under development. Author Kelly Carnes identifies the current moment as a golden age of opportunity for American innovators to partner with government, a moment in which there is bipartisan support for investing more aggressively in the development and deployment of leading-edge technology.

Next Generation Innovation collects insights from Carnes’ experience as an attorney for technology companies, her time spent working as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology in the Office of Technology Policy, and her current entrepreneurial effort, TechVision21—a company offering exclusive assistance to technology visionaries interested in doing well by doing good for the nation. TechVision21 offers its clients the opportunity to collaborate with an expert team that is deeply knowledgeable about theories and models of innovation, the history of science and technology policy, and the details of U.S. government programs and budget-making processes.

Carnes’ wide-ranging experience makes her uniquely sensitive to the challenges facing entrepreneurs taking ideas and projects from inception to commercialization. With full awareness of those challenges, Carnes argues that technology organizations of all sizes and capabilities could be doing more to leverage U.S. government policies, programs, and funding opportunities to achieve their fullest potential. She writes, “In my company’s work helping innovators establish and sustain productive relationships with the Federal government, I try never to lose sight of two important details: the government wants to support projects that serve the national good—whether promoting security, health, a clean environment, ensuring a stable and safe food supply, promoting high quality job opportunities, or addressing climate change—and many innovators are driven by a desire to contribute to the national or global good. …From the long-term partnerships between government and industry that I have both participated in and witnessed, doing good is the truest satisfaction drawn by both partners.”

Next Generation Innovation sets as its task not only encouraging more entrepreneurs to consider the value of their ideas for promoting the national good but also guiding readers through a careful consideration of every step in the partnering process—from evaluating the partnership appropriateness of specific projects to setting priorities and developing a strategy that maximizes opportunity over the long term. In so doing, Carnes highlights the value of ongoing engagement with both program managers and policy makers as critical parts of any effort to promote one’s technology and achieve business goals.

There is much to consider and much to do when it comes to engaging in fruitful long-term relationships with the Federal government. Carnes couches her down-to-earth, detailed practical advice within an overall approach that recognizes the significant amount of effort and know-how involved: “I emphasize the importance of finding early on people to integrate into your team who can take you all the way through that journey—from initial research and strategizing to plotting effective communications across a variety of audiences, to finding ways of further enhancing successful, established partnerships.”

In response to the need for strategic, concerted effort, Next Generation Innovation can be read both as a primer for companies newly considering establishing government partnerships and as a timely reference for those looking to refresh and renew their approach.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Advantage Media Group
• Release date: Aug 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781642258066

Kelly Carnes

The HONORABLE KELLY CARNES is a nationally recognized technology policy expert and thought leader. She has served the high-tech industry for over 20 years, holding leadership positions in technology business, law, and government. While working at the highest levels of government, Ms. Carnes provided strategic direction and management oversight for a large Federal agency; spearheaded sophisticated, highly leveraged public-private partnerships to promote technological innovation; and led numerous Presidential and Cabinet-level technology initiatives. She is President and CEO of TechVision21, a Washington, DC-based technology strategy firm that leverages technology, business, and government expertise to help companies pinpoint and secure research and funding, forge critical alliances with business and government leaders, and promote and protect their interests in Washington.

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INTRODUCTION

AMERICA WAS FOUNDED on big ideas. Our country has long been home to risk-takers, disruptors, and innovators seeking to change the nation and the world. Over the years, our great national experiment has attracted big thinkers—and doers—from every walk of life. America would not be the advanced country it is today without these brilliant minds shaping our trajectory and bringing us a myriad of products, such as the internet, smartphones, and GPS technologies, and the tools used in our current fights against COVID and climate change.

The United States government has been there every step of the way with supportive policies and investments, helping big ideas become reality for over two hundred years. With a mission squarely aimed at prioritizing national security, health, energy, environmental protection, economic development, agriculture, and other societal needs, the government continues to play a critical role in funding and supporting technological progress in the public interest. United States government support has made possible many of the technologies we depend on and benefit from every day—including batteries for electric vehicles, bar codes, and technologies that increase our capacity to improve human life, for example, MRIs, genetic testing and tracing technologies, vaccines, and advanced prosthetics. From the perspective of an individual innovator, the United States government can provide grants ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to multimillions to help accelerate technical progress and speed time to market through investments in research and development (R&D), infrastructure, and/or development of manufacturing capacity. In short, the United States government plays a catalytic role in bringing great innovations to the nation.

My passion for promoting American innovation developed decades ago when I served as an attorney representing technology companies in business transactions. In that role, I witnessed firsthand the birth of email services, the early stages of internet development, and other innovations in telecommunications. I supported a small company introducing one of the earliest voice recognition systems. So in a very small way, you may have me to thank for everyone’s favorite invention: the modern call center, in which you talk to a computer rather than a person when you have an issue or complaint.

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Later, I served as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy. Our mission at the Office of Technology Policy was to promote the competitiveness of United States industry, which included supporting wise investments in R&D, talent, and infrastructure. In this position, I was privileged to work alongside many great public servants and role models. Our job in the Office of Technology Policy was to communicate with the technology business community and to develop, advocate for, and implement programs and policies to promote innovation and American competitiveness, including increased investment in research & development in R&D, developing and nurturing the nation’s pool of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent, supporting development and expansion of technology-related infrastructure (including our stellar network of national laboratories and shared user facilities), and promoting a pro-innovation business climate.

One important program at that time was the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), adopted under the George H. W. Bush Administration, expanded by President Clinton, and managed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The ATP made investments in individual companies and consortia—frequently in partnership with laboratories and/or universities—to advance high-risk enabling technologies with the potential for extraordinary economic benefits to the United States. At the time, this program was controversial, because large companies could benefit from the funding even though those companies were most likely to be able to fund projects themselves. However, the results were impressive; one review conducted in 2001 found that 25 percent of projects resulted in expanded production capacity, 41 percent completed production prototypes for at least one application, 35 percent completed pilot production or a commercial demonstration, and 12 percent moved into actual production. At that time, 10 percent of companies had earned early revenues, and ATP awardees had filed 105 patent applications and 7 copyrights and had been issued 11 patents.¹

I recall that one of my mentors, Dr. Mary Good, who served as Under Secretary of Technology at the Commerce Department and who was a real trailblazer—she earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, served as the head of a multibillion-dollar R&D organization in private industry, and then served as a longtime government advisor at a time when women were not prominent in these positions—spent a substantial amount of time with Members of Congress answering questions about this controversial program such as Why is the government providing IBM with funding? They can easily afford to make these investments without United States government help.

Inevitably, Dr. Good would say, in a very feisty way, something to the effect of I want IBM to make the investments here in America. Don’t you?

That principle of encouraging investments in America is just as valid today. Unfortunately, after quite some time, ATP was discontinued due to lack of political support. That story is worth noting for the lesson it suggests. When Bill Clinton became President in the early 1990s, he made the ATP one of his signature programs, encouraging its growth into over a billion-dollar-a-year enterprise. Republicans in Congress took a firm stance against it in their attempts to reduce or eliminate programs that President Clinton favored. Although those efforts did weaken the program over the years, they didn’t eliminate it. It wasn’t until 2006 that ATP was discontinued. The lesson I believe it’s important to draw from the politicization of the ATP is not that the unpredictability associated with political maneuverings stands as an argument against pursuing government support. Instead, I believe the important lesson this suggests is this: if a program exists and is funded today, entrepreneurs should not hesitate to utilize its resources!

Another major program to which I had the opportunity to contribute was the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, launched in 1993 (PNGV). This was a collaboration among the (then) Big Three automakers (General Motors, Ford, and Daimler Chrysler) and a whopping thirteen government agencies and departments seeking to develop technologies needed to make a midsize family sedan three times more fuel efficient. The relevant technologies included advancements in internal combustion engines, designing and creating electric vehicles and their batteries, development of new lighter-weight materials, and exploration of alternative power sources such as hydrogen and flywheels. PNGV was a seminal program that led to the deployment of new generations of vehicles by the automotive industry and launched trends in automotive development and manufacturing that continued from that point forward and have grown even stronger today.

The last story I will share for now from my time in government service is the thrill of participating in the launch of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) in fiscal year (FY) 2001.² The NNI—which is still going strong today—focuses on coordination of nanotechnology R&D efforts across eleven government agencies. In the FY 2023 budget, the NNI was funded at over $2 billion. The NNI also has created several very valuable user facilities open to the nanotechnology research community. While not all United States progress in nanotechnology over the past twenty-two years can be attributed to the NNI, this initiative has certainly had a major impact. Some of the developments in the industry include core processor technology, clean technologies, and everyday products such as sunscreen, adhesives, and heat and water-resistant fibers. Various nano-based products have been commercialized, and the industry stands on the precipice of even greater contributions across many fields, including transportation, energy, and medicine, to name just a few.

During my years in law and government, I learned a great deal about the challenges facing entrepreneurs (whether in start-ups, venture- backed companies, or innovators working on leading-edge technologies within large global companies) when it comes to moving a concept from inception to commercialization. I also learned that partnerships among industry, academia, government, and nonprofit organizations can play a critical role in overcoming those challenges. In government, I also learned quite a bit about political maneuverings and how even the best-laid plans to bring new innovations to market can sometimes be derailed if inadequate attention is paid to building support across the large universe of players who influence United States government technology programs and policies.

When Administrations changed and I left government service, I remained keenly aware that many organizations of all sizes and capabilities were not leveraging United States government policies, programs, and funding to their fullest potential. That was when I decided to launch TechVision21 to help a wide range of clients advance exciting technologies to increase their success while also helping improve American competitiveness, national security, job creation, and economic growth. This doing well while doing good philosophy underpins all of TechVision21’s work. From the start, I sought out—and was quickly found by—enterprises that were highly motivated to promote the national good and had made that motivation part and parcel of their overall mission. At TechVision21, we have been very fortunate to work directly with both the Federal and state governments, with companies of all sizes and stages of development, and with universities and nonprofit organizations to advance their technologies and policy interests.

One of the things I truly love about my work is the opportunity to collaborate with an expert team that is deeply knowledgeable about theories and models of innovation, the history of science and technology policy, and details of United States government programs and the budget-making process. This array of expertise gives our team the collective insight needed quickly to pinpoint each client’s specific needs and understand how to address those needs through innovative partnerships with government and policy-shaping initiatives. In over twenty years in business, my team and I have supported numerous pathbreaking technologies, including information and communications technology, defense, broadband, a wide variety of renewable energy technologies, semiconductors, automotive technologies, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and more.

As my team and I look to the future, we are excited about the opportunities available to Americans to ride the next wave of innovation. In my opinion, there are four powerful forces at work that make the need for next-generation innovation even more urgent and imperative when it comes to enhancing Americans’ quality of life and providing our children and grandchildren with extraordinary opportunities to achieve the American Dream.

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1. The pace of technological change and technology adoption has accelerated dramatically over the past few decades.

2.